


Rest In Peace

by beccaelizabeth



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Mental Illness, My First Fanfic, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 1997-12-22
Updated: 1997-12-21
Packaged: 2017-10-06 06:39:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/50769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beccaelizabeth/pseuds/beccaelizabeth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Del, a very reluctant Immortal, meets Richie Ryan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Del was sitting in the glass corridor looking out upon the garden, with a book tucked in her sling, and her friend Dawn sat next to her.

She kept her gaze fixed on Dawn's reflection in the glass as they talked. She really didn't want to see the way her eyes looked without the mirror... Dawn wore jeans and a t shirt and chattered away about her soaps and her magazines. Del wore a long denim dress, and slip on shoes. Her red hair was cut very close to her head, and her blue eyes never stopped moving. Her gaze flitted from point to point, never stopping long, and her movements were bird like.

This was her favourite place for sitting, especially this time of day when the sun made it all warm and shiny. Dawn sat on one of the plastic chairs, but Del nestled underneath a table, curled up small. She liked this place because from here you could see outside-the-gate, but outside-the-gate couldn't see you. There was just a little gap in the flowers, and you had to come quite a long way up the path from the gate before you could see into the corridor. It was a very private establishment, quiet and calm, an asylum for all those who the outside world hadn't quite treated right. Del liked it here.

She scratched at her arm absently. She really wanted to get the silly cast off, it had stopped hurting almost right away, but there was some silly reason for keeping it on longer. She forgot quite what.

"Trees." Del said longingly, breaking into the flow of Dawn's amiable chatter.

"You can't go out today, remember?" Dawn said, not unkindly. She knew it was quite possible her small companion had forgotten.

"Want to see the sun through the leaves.. It changes but its always sun and leaves, no... bad things..." Del said, whispering the last words.

"Was that why you were climbing?" Dawn asked, pointing at her arm. "Cause that's why you can't go out on your own."

"It was only a small tree. There are only small trees. You would think in a garden this big there would be one that was big enough." Del said softly.

Something out in the garden caught her eye. She glanced up, then looked back down at her hands.

People, on the path from outside-the-gate. She had seen one of them before. He was around a lot, one of her people. But the blonde man was new. He looked funny, but then most of the people who looked ordinary turned out to be her people.

There was something about this one that made her want him to be regular people. He and his companion stopped where the paths branched, and said something to each other. That wasn't a good sign. If the dark one was one of hers, and the other one could see him...

"Dawn." Del said carefully, looking down at her hands and moving them like she was counting on her fingers, "Do you see that man outside?"

"What man?" Dawn asked, looking out. Then she saw her friends face fall. "Oh, don't worry. I just meant which one. Tall dark and handsome, or young, blonde and headed this way?" She smiled.

Del looked up relieved. "You see both of them? Oh, good."

"Why? Like the look of them?" Dawn grinned. "Wouldn't blame you."

As the blonde man wandered closer, vaguely checking out the garden, Del got a weird feeling in her head, not quite like being dizzy. She frowned to herself and told her head to stop it, but then she noticed that the man had stopped just then and was looking up right at her. She blushed bright red and swivelled round, putting her back against the glass. She pulled out her book and concentrated on it, or at least stared at it hard.

"He's still headed this way." Dawn informed her, grinning, and pretending to only look along the corridor but really keeping an eye on his progress. "In fact he just got to the door.." Dawn continued, then shut up as he opened the door and got in hearing range. She kept looking at her friend and trying not to giggle.

The blonde young man walked down the corridor towards them hesitantly. Del looked at her book very hard.

Then Dawn hadn't said anything for a while, so Del peeked.

He was still standing there, hovering hesitantly like he was trying to figure out something to say. She saw the prettiest lights all over him, and then realised she was staring and blinked and turned back to her book.

The man drew a breath and took another step towards them, then seemed to change his mind and turned to go.

Dawn nudged her. "Go on, say something." She whispered. "He was looking at you." Del shook her head fiercely. "Come on, it's not that bad." the young man was almost back to the door now, walking slow and glancing back at them. "Look, if you wont say anything, I will." said Dawn, and drew a deep breath to call out to him.

That did it. Del couldn't think of anything she could say by accident that would be half as embarrassing as the things Dawn said on purpose, so quickly she blurted out "Hi."

It sounded quite loud in the still quiet, and she blushed all over again, but she kept looking at him this time.

He turned around and walked back over to them.

"Um, hi." Del said again a bit quieter. That was about all her inspiration used up just then.

The man glanced at the two of them sitting there, and then Dawn got up and walked away, winking at Del as she left. He rubbed the back of his neck sort of embarrassed looking, and crouched down next to Del to talk to her. Del decided right then that she liked him, even if he did make her head feel funny.

"Richie Ryan." He said, holding his hand out.

Del looked at it a bit hesitantly, then reached out and took it. As she had feared, a whole flood of pictures flashed in her head. These ones were all about... swords? And a red mist?

She realised she had just been sitting there holding onto his hand, and she didn't know how long for. It seemed like ages to her, even though the clock had not moved.

"You can call me Del. Just Del, not any other names at all. Nobody is allowed to say my other names, only Del, because Del is me now." she explained, letting go of his hand and absently slotting her book back in her sling.

"Oh-kay." He nodded. Del was used to that tone. She had probably said too much about it. But at least he wasn't being mean. He gestured to her arm. "You.. broke your arm?"

"I was climbing a tree last week. It was only a short tree. They don't have tall trees here." she paused a moment and then thought maybe she ought to say something else now. "You sliced your neck?" She asked.

He looked at her really puzzled, and her face fell again as she realised that a cut like she saw on his neck would mean he wouldn't be walking around breathing. It was probably just one of her things again, like Dawn's alien eyes.

"I'm sorry, it just looked like you got stuck back together... sorry..." She mumbled again, doing her finger counting game again.

"No, that's okay." he said, and reached out to touch her shoulder.

"Really?" she looked up again, and he looked a bit confused but not mad at her. A really beaming smile spread across her face.

Just then she saw his dark haired friend again, only all flickery and still like usual. A moment later she got that weird head feeling again from out in the garden. She looked up to see the dark one walking down the path towards them, only now he was all over lights like her new friend.

She noticed her new friend Richie had looked up at just the same time as her, so she dared ask a bit hesitantly "Does he make a buzz in your head too?"

Richie looked down at this earnest young woman, all her feelings easy to read in her every movement, and realised he had no idea how to handle things from here. She looked like she might have been older than him at her first death, but now she acted so young.... "Uh, yeah, usually." he replied honestly, rather relieved that Mac had shown up right then. Maybe he could figure out if they should tell her she was an Immortal.

***

Mac had been slightly annoyed when he hadn't found Richie waiting in the garden like he'd asked, but he didn't have to get much closer to him to figure out why. His first impression was that the Immortal he was sitting with was a young girl, but on closer inspection he guessed her age at first death to be closer to thirty. It was just the way she moved and acted, like a child, every reaction showing from deepest disappointment to pure delight.

He opened the door and joined them in the corridor, Richie walking over to him.

"Mac... I'm glad you got here. She doesn't know anything about us, or about healing even. Her arms been in a cast for a week, it would have been healed practically before she got up off the floor." Richie said in a low tone. Del watched them curiously, her head tilted to one side. Richie glanced around, saw her looking at them. "Mac, what do we tell her? She's in the Game if she knows it or not."

"If we tell her, who would believe her? And how would it help?" Mac said in the same tone of voice.

Del looked thoughtful a moment as they talked to each other. They really looked pretty with shiny lights like lightning all under their skin. What were they saying? Oh yes. "I like games." Del piped up, watching as they turned around to face her. Really, just because she was quiet didn't mean she couldn't hear plenty good.

Richie stepped forwards and introduced his friend. "Del, this is Mac. He's a friend of mine. Mac, meet Del. Just Del, she's quite sure that's her name."

"Yup yup." Del said, hopping to her feet and sticking her hand out.

"A pleasure to meet you." Mac smiled. Del smiled back. He really was one of her favourite of her people. She looked up at him and frowned again, then glanced over at Richie and back at Mac.

"What was he doing behind your eyes?" She asked Mac, puzzled. Mac looked taken aback and glanced over at Richie, then shook hands with her. All his pictures were of swords too, and...

Del jumped back and went dead white, then quickly whirled around and hid under the table, curled up in a ball. "You saw it, you SAW it. It got you.. it got Richie... bad thing... got him... Demon got him..." she said, starting off loud but quickly fading to a mumble as she rocked back and forth saying over and over "demon got him... demon got him.. demon got him..."

Mac and Richie looked at each other quite stunned, then Mac walked cautiously over to the table and crouched down beside her. "Del.. Del!" he said softly, trying to get her attention. He reached out carefully and took hold of her shoulder, but she didn't seem to notice. "Del, it's all right... It's okay now..." she kept on rocking, and Richie looked around for some help before walking over to crouch near her too. "Del, it's all right, there's no one threatening you here..." Duncan said, not really getting through to her.

"Del.." Richie said, taking hold of her free hand gently.. "Look at me, it's me, Richie. Look Del. I'm right here. If it 'got' me, I wouldn't be here now, would I?" Richie said gently. This seemed to get through a little. She stopped mumbling and looked up at him, still rocking back and forwards.

"I saw it." she said cautiously. She reached out tentatively and touched his throat, just where Duncan's sword had sliced through it not so long ago. "You were in pieces. All your shiny fell out, and... it went behind his eyes." She turned and glared accusingly at MacLeod.

Richie gently turned her head back to face him. "I'm not there now. You see? I'm right here. It's all right."

Del stopped rocking and reached out gently to touch under each of his eyes, looking at him real hard. Then she turned on that brilliant smile of hers and practically leapt out from her table to hug him.

"You beat it!" She exclaimed happily, as Richie tried to keep his balance and prevent them from ending up in a heap on the floor. "I never seen it get beat before." She let go of him and stood up, as did Mac and Richie. She glanced from one to the other. "I saw it the other time. It took the bad man back. It reached right out and grabbed him."

"Well... not this time." Richie said, trying to keep up with her moods.

Del smiled again. "Good." She paused, hopped from one foot to the other for a moment, then said "Do you want to come and see the garden?" she looked at them expectantly, then grabbed Richie's hand and led him to the door. She stopped again abruptly. "Oh." She said, pouting, "I'm not allowed in the garden today. Because of my arm."

"Well, we'll have to come back another day then." Mac said smoothly, and smiled at her. He took hold of Richie's shoulder, and pulled him away towards the door.

"Mac, we can't just..." Richie whispered fiercely.

"Well what are we supposed to... oh all right." Mac whispered back, then turning to Del he said, "Look, you might want to get that arm checked again. It might have.. not been as broken as they thought. And.. there's a chapel on the grounds? Do you go there?"

Del nodded solemnly. "When there's too many bad things." she whispered to them.

"Well, that might be a good habit to keep up. If anyone bad comes here." Mac said, looked down at Richie who didn't exactly have any more objections, then looked back at Del again.

Del repeated "Might not be broken... and go to the chapel..." she turned around and started heading for the stairs, chanting in a sing song voice what her new friends had told her, "Might not be broken.. go to the chapel.. might not be broken.. go to the chapel.."

They watched her go around the corner, then glanced at each other and stepped out into the garden. Richie looked at Mac as they walked. Mac didn't look at him, and tried to keep quiet.

"All right. I'll find out more about her, and see if I can get her a teacher who'll understand." Mac's face darkened for a moment as he remembered. "I would have sent her to Sean, but... I guess I'll have to find someone else."

"I'll help any way I can Mac." Richie said, and Mac nodded and sighed. Sometimes it would be nice for these things to fall in someone else's lap.

***

Inside Del skipped up the stairs happily. The doctors office, the one for broken bodies, was all the way up the top, with all the equipment and things the living-here people weren't supposed to touch. When she got to the door up there she knocked until someone came.

"Might not be broken." she announced proudly, holding out her arm. She kept on saying it until the doctors let her in and took another X Ray of it. Then she sat on a bench swinging her legs and reading her book until they came back looking puzzled and started cutting the cast off.

"See? Told you. Might not be broken. My new friends said." Del announced.

"You're new friends?" asked the nurse, one of the nice ones.

"Yup. I thought he was a one of my people, but then there was another him that wasn't. And the nice one with the really big sword made the .. D-E-M-O-N ... go away." Del finished, whispering the word and looking in all the corners.

"That's just great! I guess you won't have to be afraid now, huh?" said the nurse happily.

Del sort of nodded and sort of shook her head, bouncing it side to side the way she'd found made people see whichever one they wanted. The nurse thought she looked very happy, and when they had taken the cast off and cleared out the room again she left Del for a minute to go and call her therapist, and tell her about the breakthrough.

Del didn't have anywhere to put her book anymore. She frowned at it and left it sitting there on the bench. She wandered over to the window, which was out at the front of the building, so you could even see outside-the-gate through it. It didn't have any bars on it. The front windows didn't. Del's room did, but then they'd found out she could get their windows open.. just like this...

Del poked her head out of the open window, ignoring the shrill little alarm going off at the nurses station, and looked all the long way down to the ground... It was very high up here.. she could see all the tops of the trees... the trees hadn't been tall enough, but just maybe, from up here, she could make it all stay still...

As the nurse dashed in, the last thing she saw was Del's shoes disappearing out the window, and when she looked out of the window it was only the nurse that screamed. Del had stayed quite calm, all the way down...

***

That night Mac and Richie were faced with the rather unpleasant task of breaking Del out of the hospital morgue. For people that never really died, Immortals seemed to end up in the morgue an uncomfortable amount of the time.

It was cold in there, but not quite quiet. Someone in one of the drawers was snoring...

They slid it open, and found Del curled up quite peacefully on her side, a hand up near her mouth, snoring away quite calmly. They had brought some clothes for her, but when they tried to wake her up she just mumbled "G'way. M'dead. Cn get sme sleep when m dead can't I?" Then she wound herself into a tighter ball and quite firmly ignored them. They gave up, and Mac just wrapped her in a warm blanket and carried her. She was very light, hardly there at all.

They got her back to Mac's place, thankfully without being noticed. It would have been a little hard to explain...

Mac asked Richie to stay there, and help him keep an eye on their new charge. He had the feeling she would be a lot of trouble.

***

The next day Richie woke up sitting up in a chair, and for a minute couldn't remember why he was there. Then he found a vague memory of Duncan waking him only a couple of hours after they had gone to sleep, saying he was going to open the dojo and could he keep an eye on Del... oh shit, where was...

It only took him a minute to find her. Or at least her feet, sticking out past the end of the kitchen counter. He walked over and felt rather sick. Del was lying there, wearing a skirt Duncan had around and on old top of his, now rather bloodstained. She also had the biggest kitchen knife sticking out of her chest. He took a deep breath, leant over, and pulled it out, throwing it in the sink. Quickly, she started breathing again, but her expression wasn't what he expected. She kept her eyes closed, and wrinkled up her face as if rather puzzled. Then she cautiously opened one eye.

"Oh." she said when she saw him, then looked down at herself, all back in one piece. She opened the other eye to double check. She sighed. "Bother."


	2. Chapter 2

***

The real trouble with Del was keeping up with her. Richie had just about got as far as being horrified about her attitude when Del jumped up and started wandering around the flat looking at all the "Pretties!". He followed her, trying to make sure everything and everyone stayed in one piece. This was easier said than done, since she had the attention span of a butterfly and she would often quite forget about the piece she was holding and just drop it as she reached for the next thing.

Finally Richie had the bright idea of offering to let Del help him make breakfast. Of course, by the time scrambled eggs and toast actually arrived at the table in edible form the kitchen was rather the worse for wear. Richie was busy cleaning it all up, with his back to Del, when he heard her giggle.

"Richie friend..." Del called out sing song. Richie turned around, just in time to get a spoon full of egg square in the face.

Richie stood there as Del collapsed in a fit of giggles, and slowly wiped the egg off his face. Then he heard the elevator start up. Mac walked in carrying a paper.

"Our new friend got a half page obituary." He said, reading from near the back of the paper. He looked up and paused as he saw the state of his home, then caught the exasperated look on Richie's face and decided not to say anything about it just then. "Apparently she was a detective with a string of commendations that take up most of the page. Says here 'Detective D...'"

"NO! No no no no no." Del jumped up and yelled. "Del. My name is Del. You call me Del, not that other name. He was the only one called me that, he said it last right before he... My name, my name is Del..." She sat down again and curled up in a ball.

"Okay, Del. It's okay." Mac came over and put an arm around her.

"I used to be Delight, but now I'm Delirium. Just Del." Del mumbled.

"I'm sorry. I'll remember." Mac apologised. Del looked up at him.

"It was the last thing he said." She told him, looking into his eyes and suddenly sounding a lot less young. "We were chasing this guy through a warehouse, and he was ahead of me. Always one step ahead of everyone. That used to be a good thing... But we didn't see the guy until he shot us... Saw lots of other things. Still do. But not this guy. And I thought I was dying, and I looked over at him and he looked and called me... Then he was dead. And I woke up alive, and he was still dead. The demon took the other guy, reached right up and pulled him into the river, but I was still there. Sometimes I still see him, but he doesn't say anything any more..." Del finished sadly, the naive little girl gone and replaced by someone who had seen far too much.

"I'm sorry Del." Mac said. "I know it hurts. We've all had that happen to us. Standing up again when the ones we care about don't."

"Yeah." Richie agreed, coming over and sitting next to her. "Believe me, I've been there." He put a comforting hand on her shoulder. She uncurled a little.

"They said... I made it up... That I hadn't really been hit. That he was the one that got hit." Del asked Richie, her voice trembling.

"It probably happened the way you remember it." He told her sympathetically. "Like with the knife. We can't die, even if we try to."

"Truly?" Del asked, hope and fear mixed equally in her voice. Richie nodded.

"Oh." She sighed, looking down at her hands and uncurling enough to put her feet on the floor. "About the knife... I'm sorry. Sometimes I'm... lots of places at once. But mostly not here. And stuff I see... sorry."

Richie hugged her. She looked so lost, but like she knew what was going on with her. That was somehow worse than the knife.

"So.. what do they say about me?" Del asked. "Most people don't get to read these things..." she reached for the paper and Mac let her take it. "Hmmm... funeral today... We bought places next to each other, ages ago. Seemed like we would need them...." She looked sad, then grinned wickedly. "Can I go?" She asked Mac.

"Del, I don't think that would be such a good idea."

"But they can't bury me if I'm not there. There won't be nobody there. Please?"

"No."

"Please please please please please please..."

"Del... we can't just.."

"...please please please please..." she continued, hardly pausing for breath, back in her little girl self.

"No! You can't turn up at your own funeral!"

"...please please please please please..." she just kept going. Mac tried putting his hand over her mouth, but she kept talking. In the end it only took her half an hour before he agreed.

"Okay! But this evening, late. Not when anyone would be there." He finally gave up and said.

Del hugged him and said "Thankyou! thankyou thankyou thankyou..."

"Alright! Just... read, or watch TV or something." Mac said, sitting her down in front of the tele and putting the remote in her hand.

"Okay." Del chirped, found a children's channel full of cartoons and sat there contentedly all day, not moving away even for lunch, just eating what Richie put in front of her without looking away from the animated antics.

Any hope that she had forgotten Mac's promise was quite forlorn however. As it got on towards sunset she turned off the TV and started bugging him again until the three of them got in the car and headed for the church.

***

At the church Del skipped in quite happily, and solemnly went over and lit a candle. There were flowers and wreaths around with her name on, messages from her old friends, but no one was around right then.

"All my friend people here..." Del spread her arms out and looked at the seats in the church, like she could see them there right then. "All came to see me. Was rude not to be here." She glared at Mac, who looked away rather at a loss. "Of course, He wasn't in here... not this time... was before, in a box, with the lid closed..." Her face went all pouty like she was going to cry, then she screwed her eyes up shut and went and sat down.

"Mac..." Richie sighed, not really sure where to start. "What are we going to do about her?"

"I don't really know yet." Mac admitted.

"These.. visions she gets. You think there's anything in them? I mean... she saw.. what happened, with the demon."

"I don't know that either. All of us have senses that are a little beyond the ordinary. The way we sense other immortals, for a start. Connor told me that when we take someone's head, we put up barriers in our minds to protect ourselves from the memories. Maybe Del is what happens when you leave the barriers down..."

"So, what, you think she's been Immortal for longer than she said?"

"Maybe. I've asked Joe to see if he can find out about her. With her acting the way she does, I doubt we could find out from her. The paper reckons she's thirty, but that could be just her latest identity." He shrugged and sat down. "We'll just have to look after her and try and find out." he finished, sighing.

Del sat with her eyes closed, listening. Not to her new friends, to the others that were here. All the others that had been through here. They all wanted to talk, there were so few people who came to listen. Del didn't want to listen. She screwed her hands up into fists and her eyes closed tight and tried to think about something, anything to make them shut up for once. Just for a while. She just wanted quiet, peace, but they never would stop. She'd tried all the ways to stop them before. That was why they'd stopped letting her knit. but now she just wanted some quiet. Go away go AWAY "GO AWAY! GO AWAY! GO AWAY!" She started yelling, waving her hands around, trying to push them all away from her, but mostly hitting herself. Richie jumped up and went over to help her.

"Del.. Del! It's okay! There's just us here. Del, open your eyes... come on, look at me.." He had grabbed hold of her wrists and was holding onto her tightly. He certainly seemed more realer than all these other people... Del risked it and opened her eyes a crack. She saw her friend Richie, same as always, shiny lightnings and blue blue eyes looking right into hers and so concerned and steady...

"Richie friend?" She asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, it's me. Just me, no one else here."

"Many, many people here. In boxes." She whispered.

"It's okay. You're okay. Come on, you want to go outside? We'll go sit outside. Okay?"

"Mmmm... okay. Outside, with trees."

"Yeah, there are trees out there. You want to see the trees? I'll come with you, it's okay..."

Del hugged him, and Richie put an arm around her shoulders and led her outside. Mac kept his distance, worried he might set her off again.

***

Del wandered along feeling almost safe in Richie's arms. He made a calm place in her world. No one had done that since... Involuntarily she glanced over to where her partner was buried, and the inviting open hole next to it. His headstone seemed to loom larger than all the others, and the world suddenly looked a lot darker. And then there were the... others.

"Richie friend..?" Del said carefully, staring rather at the graves around them as they walked towards a bench under the trees.

"Yeah Del?"

"You know we was dead people... and now we're alive people again. and walking around and stuff..."

"Yeah."

"Well... is there people that still look like dead people, but aren't really?" She asked, watching as one of them stuck its head out of the ground and made faces at her.

"No. We have to heal before we can walk around again. We're not zombies or anything." Richie replied.

"Oh. Good." Del said, looking only in front of her and hoping all the others knew that too. Richie noticed she stumbled a little, and caught her before she could fall. Del shook off the skeleton hand that had briefly caught hold of her ankle, and kept walking.

They reached the bench and sat down. Del snuggled up to Richie and smiled contentedly as her view of the graves once more was one of only grass and stone. "This is nice nice. All quiet. Rest in Peace." she said, then giggled, and closed her eyes and leaned against Richie. "Rest in Richie." She grinned.

"You okay now?" Richie asked. She liked the way he said it. Like he was half telling her she was.

"Okay now." Del replied, and opened her eyes to watch the sun set. There was a really nice view from here. That was one of the reasons they had chosen the place. Not that they anticipated looking at the view much themselves of course... Del frowned again sadly.

Out away at the edge of where she could see, another one of her people was watching. The shadow man, with his long coat. Only now she noticed he was all over lights too. She didn't like the way he was looking at them, and was quite glad when he went around the corner out of sight.

Then her flickery her version of Mac popped into being right next to them, and she jumped, then smiled and watched for him to come out of the church to meet them. Sure enough, he walked out, and told them it was time to go home. It was nice to know when he was thinking of her.


	3. Chapter 3

That night she curled up on the sofa as soon as they got back and fell asleep. Richie went back to his place for some much needed rest.

The next day Del woke up and just sat there. She didn't eat breakfast when it was made, she didn't look at the TV when it was on, she just sat. Then Richie arrived, and as soon as Mac felt his buzz Del was up and bouncy and happy again. She decided to make him some supper, and she went through the kitchen like a whirlwind, actually coming up with a fair pasta dish, but wrecking what was left of the food in the process. After they ate, Mac left her there with Richie while he went to get more food.

Del chose a video and she and Richie settled down to watch. It was a romantic comedy, a bit of a surprising choice considering her usual viewing habits, but Richie had decided to give up being surprised by Del. If he could.

She snuggled up closer to him happily as they watched and he absently put an arm around her. Del was happy. It was so nice to be with Richie. She had not felt so safe in ever such a long time.

"Richie love..." she said timidly, looking up at him.

"Yeah?" Richie said, and turned to look at her, his wonderful eyes meeting hers...

Del reached forwards, cupped his face in her hands, and kissed him.

Richie was definitely surprised. For a minute he sat there frozen, then he tried to back up and say something without hurting her feelings.

Del had closed her eyes. It had been so long since she had kissed anyone, and it was so nice... but when he moved she opened her eyes again, and what she saw made her jump up and start screaming.

She had been kissing Richie's head. Just his head, hanging there, with his eyes dead and dull and his tongue hanging out and the stump of his neck red and awful and Del screamed and screamed and clamped her hands over her mouth to try and stop screaming.

Richie's head rose up off the sofa like he was standing up, and she heard him say "Del.. what's wrong?". She closed her eyes and scratched at them, still screaming and telling them viciously to behave. When she opened her eyes again, All of Richie was standing there, alive again, but with a gap at his neck... He half stepped forwards, and she turned and ran into the bathroom and piled things in front of the door then sat down curled up in a ball and tried to stop screaming, until she was just squeaking and rocking back and forth.

Bad eyes. Bad world. All bad things everywhere, bad bad bad. Richie friend was calling to her, asking what was wrong, but she didn't want to say. He wasn't like that, not for himself, just her seeing it. Bad bad bad. She jumped up and turned on the shower, hoping that would convince him to go away, that she had a reason for being in here.

He gave up trying to talk to her. After all, if she drowned herself or something they would just have to dry her out later. Harsh but true. Maybe Mac could think of something, although until this time it seemed to be him that set her off.

Del turned around, and caught sight of herself in the mirror. Now she was all lightning too, and red around the neck. Then a movement behind her made her whirl to look, and in the shower she saw the shadow man again, all dark this time, and with the water going right through him. What did it mean? What did it mean... all these bad things... she just wanted some way to end it all, to go away for ever and ever, be somewhere at peace... then she remembered something, and whirled to check her neck in the mirror again. She grinned at herself, and looked back at the shadow man, who grinned back and floated out of the window. She opened it and, climbing carefully, followed.

Down in the street the Shadow man met himself, and went shiny again. Del skipped over to him, feeling the buzzing in her head again.

"You can end it, can't you?" she asked him. "Forever dead, and not waking up again?"

"You want that?" He asked her, surprised.

She nodded and stuck her chin out so he could get at her neck. The shadow man shrugged, drew out his sword, and struck.

Back in the flat, Richie was wondering what to do next, when suddenly the street outside lit up with the lightning that came only from the Quickening.

"Oh no.. Del. Del!" he shouted, banging on the bathroom door until he forced it open enough to see the open window. Then he ran back in and grabbed his sword.

He got out into the street just as the Quickening subsided, to find a tall man in a dark trenchcoat kneeling next to Del's small body, panting, his sword in his hand.

"Damn you... You bastard, she didn't know about the Game. She didn't know anything. Why the hell did you do it?" Richie yelled, pointing his sword at the man.

He looked around, and shrugged. "Why not?" he got to his feet shakily. "She asked me to. I was here for the Highlander, but I thought I might as well get an aperitif."

Richie's face went hard. "I'm Richard Ryan. And you are going to die." He stepped up ready for the fight.

"Not exactly sporting, to take a man when he's incapacitated." the other said, trying to pull himself together.

"I'll give you exactly as much chance as you gave her." Richie growled in reply, but did not attack.

The other man sagged a moment, exagerating his weakness, then he lunged forwards. Richie blocked the blow easily, and stepped aside as the man stumbled forwards off balance. He turned, and swung again, to be blocked again. Even half intoxicated from Del's Quickening, the man was still a strong and fast opponent. But, as Richie proved knocking the sword out of his hand, not half way fast enough. Richie raised his sword for the final blow.

"Do it. There can be only one." The other said, acknowledging defeat.

"If you think that's why I'm doing this, nobody's going to miss you." Richie said, and swung.

***

They dumped the unknown stalker's body in the garbage, where it was picked up in the morning and taken out to the tip where it belonged.

Del they returned to the morgue. Her funeral proceeded as planned, only a few days late, a proper send off for a well loved officer. She was buried next to her partner, as she had wished for so long.

Richie and Mac could not go to the service. Too many people there sharing their stories of the deceased, too many explanations. But the next day they went with flowers for her grave.

Richie stood there in the light of the setting sun and gently set his flowers on the fresh earth, hoping she would like these 'pretties'. He gazed out at the view, and hoped she had found what she wanted.

"Rest in Peace, Del." Richie whispered.

From the back of his mind came a remembered giggle, and a chirping voice replied  
//Rest in Richie. //

**Author's Note:**

> This was written a very long time ago, 1997, and was my first solo Highlander fic. It was also based on a nightmare. It's not going to represent my best work.
> 
> I'm not sure I'd deal with these themes now. Probably not the same way.


End file.
